Nothing like a relaxing walk.....

Dinner was done. Kitchen was clean. It was only 5:45 and the beautiful evening was calling me to come out and play. Here's how the next hour played out:

"I'm going for a little walk. Anyone want to come?"
(Guess which kid wanted to come. The one in a cast.)

"Peter, you're in a cast. I don't know that you can go on a walk."

"Okay, then I'll just ride a bike."
Great plan. Except that after struggling to get the bike out of the garage we discover that his bike has a broken seat.

"Maybe I could ride Eleanor's bike."
Manuvering carefully between the van, the other two bikes, and the garage wall, we finally get the other bike out. Two flat tires.

"Maybe they're not really flat. Maybe they just need to be pumped up."
By now, I'm losing my desire to take a walk, but I'm trying really hard to be patient. The kid has been cooped up in a splint or cast for a month now, he's stir crazy and just wants to get some exercise and fresh air.

So we pump up the tires. Once around the cul-de-sac tells us that, while it's not ideal, it might work. So, off we go. Me walking, him riding.

Half way down the street:
"This seat is really uncomfortable."
(I bite my tongue and keep walking.)

Down the street and around the corner.
"These pedals are spiky!"
"Well, maybe you should have worn a shoe on the other foot."
(one foot in a cast, the other with just a sock on)

Down to the next cul-de-sac.
"These gears are really messed up. I don't think I can ride this thing."

I tried to keep smiling as I asked what his plan was for getting himself and the bike back to the house.
"Maybe Mary could drive down and pick me up."

Which is how I ended up walking slowly home with a bike whose tires were steadily losing air and had crappy gears and spiky pedals.


Next time, I'm sneaking out the door and leaving the kids a note.